He smiled. I love when you say my name like that.

When Im annoyed?

Its sexy.

Lizzie cleared her throat. That is not a friendship word, okay?

I was merely making a statement of fact.

Opinion.

Fact"

{ 121 }.

Lane, Im telling you right now, you need to . . .

As she went off on him, talking in her typical straightforward, no- nonsense way, he closed his eyes and listened to the orders, letting the tone of her voice wash over him. Deep in his gut, that old familiar lust stirred, a dragon woken up" and the urge was so strong, he wanted to get in his car and head out over the bridges to Indiana.

Are you still there? she demanded.

Oh, yeah. Rearranging his erection in his pants, he held back a groan. Yes, I am.

What are you doing?

He moved his hand way, waaaaay away from ground zero. Nothing.

Well? she said. Are you?

Am I what?

Falling asleep on me?

Hardly, he muttered.

There was a heartbeat of a pause. Then a tight, Oh . . .

Like shed caught his drift.

I better go, he said roughly. You take care and Ill talk to you tomorrow.

Except now she didnt seem to want him to get off the phone" and his cock was very truly happy about that: So youre really staying? she said.

Can we talk about something else, his erection thought.

Down, boy.

Yes, I am. As he shifted on the hard floor, he tried to ignore the way that zipper stroked at him. I have to meet with Samuel T. about my divorce.

So youre really going to . . .

Yes, he said. Immediately. And, no, its not just about you. I made a mistake, and Im fixing it for everybody.

Okay. She cleared her throat. Yes.

Im only looking forward, Lizzie.

So you say. Well . . . good- bye"

No, he cut in. Not that. We say good night, all right? Not good- { 122 }.

bye, not unless you want me showing up to sleep on your doorstep like a stray dog.

All right.

Before she ended the call on her side, he mouthed, I love you. Good night, Lizzie.

Good . . . night, Lane.

Ending the connection, he let his arm fall down, and the phone hit the concrete floor with a crack. I love you, Lizzie, he muttered out loud.

Taking another draw off the bottle, he thought how convenient it was that his familys fortunes were based on something that could get him drunk" as opposed to the countless other consumer products which wouldnt have helped him in his current situation: pencils, car batteries, Band- Aids, chewing gum.

When his phone went off again, he snapped to and picked the thing up. But it wasnt Lizzie calling him back.

Jeff, he said, even thought he didnt really want to talk to anybody.

His Manhattan hosts voice was dry. Youre still alive.

Pretty much. He put the bottle to his mouth again. Hows you?

Are you drinking?

Yup. Number Fifteen. Id share it with you if you were here.

Such a Southern gentleman. His buddy cursed. Lane, where are you?

Home.

Cue the crickets over the connection. As in . . .

Yup.

Charlemont?

Born and bred I was and back to the fold I have returned. Huh.

Guess he was getting drunk; he sounded really Southern. Like you and the Upper East Side, only we have chitterlings and fried chicken"

What the hell are you doing there?

My . . . He cleared his throat. A very important person got sick.

And I had to come.

Who?

{ 123 }.

The woman who raised me. My . . . well, mother" even though shes not my biological mother. She was sick a couple of years ago, but, you know these things. They can return. She says shes going to be fine, though, and Im hanging on to that.

Whenre you coming back?

Lane took another drink. Did I ever tell you I got married?

What?

It was right before I came up north and started crashing with you.

Im going to stay down here until I know Miss Auroras okay and that dumb idea is taken care of. Plus . . . anyway . . . theres this other woman.

Hold on. Just, fucking hell, hold on.

There was some rustling, then the chk- chk- chk of someone trying to get a lighter to spit out a flame . . . followed by some puffing. Im going to need a Cuban to get through this. So . . . theres a wife?

I told you I wasnt gay.

And is that the reason you havent been with anyone up here?

No, thats because of the other female. The one I didnt marry. The one who is naturally beautiful and way too good for me.

Im going to need a Venn diagram, the guy muttered. Goddamn it, why didnt you talk about all this?

Lane shook his head even though his old friend couldnt see him. I was in running mode. Man, he hated that Chantal had called it right.

It was all too loud in my head. The whole thing. So hows you?

You drop all that and cap it with a howm I?

I got drinking to do. Talking is only slowing me down, but Im free to listen. He swallowed a long draft. So . . . whats up?

Im good, you know, work is the same. Ten thousand screamers calling, a boss whos up my ass, and sixteen Motrin a day to keep my head from exploding. Same ol, same ol. At least the moneys there"

especially now that youre not taking me for a quarter of a million dol- lars every week across the felt.

They spoke for a while more about nothing in particular. Poker games, Wall Street, the woman Jeff was banging. And even though Lane wasnt much for phone convos, he realized he missed the guy. Hed { 124 }.

gotten used to the quick talk, the fast wit, and especially that hint of a Jersey accent where words that ended in a were pronounced with er and people waited on line instead of in line. And it was birfday, instead of birthday.

So I guess this is good- bye, his old college roommate said.

Lane frowned and pictured Lizzie. Heard her voice. Remembered her caution.

Then he rearranged his persistent arousal.

Was there a possibility he might not go back to New York, he wondered.

Then again, he shouldnt get ahead of himself. When it came to getting Lizzie back, it took two to tango. Just because he was ready to resume the relationship didnt mean she was ever going to jump back into things. And then there was his family. As if he could imagine living at Easterly again? Even if Miss Aurora got back on her feet fully and he and Lizzie worked things out, the idea of coexisting with his father was enough to make him think fondly of the Canadian border. And even that wouldnt be far enough away.

I dont know if Im staying permanently.

You can always come back here. My couch misses you already"

and nobody plays Texas Holdem like you do.

The two of them hung up after a set of good- byes, and as Lane did another round with the lax- arm, phone- flopping- down- on- the- concrete-floor thing, he refocused on the ancient still across the way. The thing had been used for decades around the turn of the century and was now an artifact to be viewed by the tens of thousands of visitors a year that came to the Old Site.

For some reason, it dawned on him that hed never had a job. The extent of his professional endeavors was avoiding the paparazzi"

which was more about survival than anything you should make a career out of. And courtesy of all his trust fund junkie stuff, he didnt know about bosses, or annoying cube mates, or bad commutes. He didnt think about needing to be somewhere at a certain time, or performance re- views, or headaches caused from too many hours at a computer screen.

{ 125 }.

Funny, hed never once considered the fact that he had so much in common with Chantal. The only difference between them? Her family money wasnt enough to keep her in the lifestyle shed been accustomed to" which was why shed had to marry him.

And then there was Lizzie, working so hard, paying off that farm of hers. Knowing her, shed probably hit her goal already.

It just made him respect her even more.

Also made him wonder exactly what he had to offer a woman of substance. Two years ago, hed been all raging hard- ons and family drama, so hungry for her physically, so captivated by her mentally that hed never looked at himself from her point of view. All his money and social position were only valuable to people like Chantal. Lizzie wanted more, deserved more.

She wanted real.

Maybe he wasnt so above that wife of his, after all.

Ex- wife, he corrected himself as he kept drinking.

{ 126 }.

FOURTEEN.

T o what do I owe this honor.